Microsoft hopes to train 2 million in basic tech skills

Microsoft Corp. said Sunday that in response to the economic crisis it would sponsor an initiative to help train up to two million people in basic technology skills.

Pamela Passman, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of global corporate affairs, announced the program at a meeting of the National Governor’s Association in Washington D.C. this morning.

The three-year initiative, dubbed Elevate America, comes at an awkward moment for Microsoft.

Exactly one month ago, Microsoft embarked on the first mass layoffs in its history, cutting 1,400 people.

Nevertheless, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has continued to try to rally the public around the idea that the technology industry will be a driver of an eventual economic recovery. He has urged Congress to support new technical skills training for the unemployed.

With Elevate America, Passman said that Microsoft wanted to do its part to help workers acquire the technology skills they needed now and over the next decade.

So, Microsoft has created a new Web portal (visit it here) where visitors can learn what skills they lack and easily find resources to learn them.

On the site, they will also be able to access various Microsoft online training programs, in order to learn some basic skills, such as how to use the Internet, send e-mail and create a resume, according to a Microsoft statement.

In conjunction with state and local governments, Microsoft will also provide a broad range of training programs and certification exams for free or at low cost.

Specifically, the company will give away one million vouchers so that people can access Microsoft’s eLearning software courses and some Microsoft business certification exams.

In an interview, Passman said the vouchers would be distributed through existing workforce development programs run by state and local governments.

“We’ve been working away on this issue for a number of years,” she said. “This is now front and center, but there is a whole (existing) infrastructure that is focused on workforce development.”

“We are plugging into that.”

Initially, Washington, Florida, and New York were to be the first state governments to partner with Microsoft on Elevate America. But Passman said that in addition the states of California, Minnesota, Virginia, Delaware, and Colorado had signed up at this morning’s meeting.

She said it was difficult to calculate the cost of the program to Microsoft but described it as “significant.”

“We don’t know which (states), how many states, which courses, which certifications,” she said.

Microsoft already sponsors several programs to provide skills training and certification exams, although none are at the scale of the initiative announced Sunday.